Groz-Beckert introduces SAP PPG in product development
The central, integrated product database in SAP ERP
Contents
The project at a glance:
Challenge:
Creating a holistic approach, with a PLM system within the ERP environment and throughstandard integration.
Task and objective:
Replacing a legacy PLM system by building a central product database located within SAP ERP.
BDF products deployed and SAP modules used:
SAP PPG, SAP iPPE for structuring product data with the integration of manufacturing-relevant information and the provision of SAP PP master data such as the material bill of materials.
Customer benefit:
Central product data management in SAP ERP with a high degree of integration to provide information within production via SAP FIORI-based apps.
Groz-Beckert KG is the world’s leading provider of industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, as well as systems and services for the production and joining of textile fabrics.
Groz-Beckert offers 50,000 products in the knitting and warp-knitting area alone:
Manufacturing a single needle requires a wide variety of tools, which are structured across different production steps. The utmost precision in storing the relevant product and manufacturing data for the needles is essential here. Product design begins in the Siemens NX CAD system. In the past, product information was instantiated and enriched with further parameters in a PDM system located outside SAP ERP. To create an integrated PLM system with a central product database within the ERP environment, Groz-Beckert turned to BDF EXPERTS. Back in 2009, Groz-Beckert had already introduced the SAP Engineering Control Center (SAP ECTR) in collaboration with our partner DSC Software AG. Since 2023, more and more products have been added segment by segment to the PLM near ERP, using SAP PPG Product and Process Governance (SAP PPG). This approach is also used beyond the Albstadt site, across the entire Groz-Beckert Group.
Different product segments & product types, one PLM in the ERP
Groz-Beckert offers a broad range of products and services for the textile industry. The main product segments include knitting, weaving, nonwovens, tufting, spinning and sewing. In the knitting segment, the offering comprises needles and system parts for various knitting technologies. In weaving, Groz-Beckert offers products for warp preparation and weaving itself. For the production of nonwovens, the company provides products and services for needling and consolidation. In the tufting segment, solutions for carpet manufacturing are offered. Beyond this, the range comprises components for the spinning process as well as sewing machine needles and accessories for industrial sewing applications.
SAP PPG makes it possible, within SAP ERP, to represent product structures on the basis of SAP iPPE. The individual products are mapped in content structures. Through an associated master structure for each product group, the designer / modeller has an overview of the generally valid manufacturing steps and can thus equip the product, or rather the exact type designation of the product, with the right steps. As the content structures are populated, database relationships to the master structure are created, which make it possible to carry out mass changes centrally.
Within SAP PPG, authorisation boundaries can be set, viewed or changed in terms of content as early as the first distinctions. The flexibility of SAP PPG thus also allows products to be mapped manually into new content structures without prior CAD integration. The solution thus supports a complete representation of all product data for the various products and also forms the bridge to manufacturing, as explained in a little more detail below.
Standardised product structures and multi-level bills of materials
Owing to the generic and structural set-up within SAP PPG, based on SAP iPPE, it was possible to take over similar structures from the legacy PDM system. Process-related adjustments , however, led to optimisations of the structures and to the establishment of more efficient structural principles for the future.
With the process-related and technical support of BDF EXPERTS, a holistic structural concept was created that comprises so-called master and content structures, in order to provide an overall overview of available manufacturing steps, which are then merged with the components of the particular product to be represented. Smart drag-and-drop capabilities also provide a straightforward user experience.
Strictly speaking, however, we are not yet talking about a SAP ERP bill of materials, but rather about SAP iPPE structures. iPPE structures make it possible to build the potential bill of materials in a more flexible and user-friendly environment and, at the end of the process chain, to use this structure as the derivation basis for bills of materials.
Building on the product data model based on SAP Product and Process Governance (SAP PPG by BDF), Groz -Beckert also developed a SAP FIORI app to display manufacturing information and the corresponding manufacturing data relevant to the respective plant. This implemented an integrated approach based on the principle that data is managed in one central place yet can be used in various areas of the process chains within production.
SAP Product and Process Governance (SAP PPG by BDF) thus provides the foundation on which environment processes can be built in a stable and future-proof way. The strong SAP PPG data model helps to adapt to conditions that change over the course of needle handovers, for example when various structuring objects can no longer be identified from the legacy system on account of the age of the needle.
More about Groz-Beckert KG
Products and services: Industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, along with matching systems and services
More than 70,000 products in total
Number of employees: 2,219 in Albstadt (approx. 9,500 worldwide)
Groz-Beckert is the world’s leading provider of industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, as well as systems and services for the production and joining of textile fabrics. The group, headquartered in Albstadt, has more than 9,500 employees and is represented in over 150 countries. It brings together more than 120,000 products across the development, production and distribution of process-critical precision textile tools, industrial cutting solutions and solutions for textile construction and high-performance fibres.
Website: https://www.groz-beckert.com/
About BDF EXPERTS
BDF EXPERTS is the brand of bdf consultants GmbH, a leading SAP Silver / SolEx partner with comprehensive end-to-end expertise in Digital Supply Chain and Corporate Finance & Treasury (CFT).
For more than 25 years, BDF EXPERTS has been helping companies, on the basis of SAP ERP and S/4HANA, to achieve measurable value creation through fully digitalised processes. In Digital Supply Chain, BDF EXPERTS has developed particular expertise in holistic data management.
With SAP PPG (Product and Process Governance), BDF EXPERTS offers an innovative solution for centrally managing all product and process data in SAP, thereby laying the foundation for data-driven business models.
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